ANSWERS IN THE PAGES (Book Review)

By David Levithan

 

(Alfred A. Knopf, 2022)

 

One oft-told piece of advice for writers is to never chase trends. Trends, by nature, come and go and the manuscript a writer works on in 2023 won’t land on a bookshelf until 2026 or later. A trend from 2023 might feel tired by then. The book could be a bust. 

 

But David Levithan has a knack for picking the right topics before they trend so his books are incredibly timely when they are finally published. His young adult novel Wide Awake was published in 2006 and is set against the backdrop of a U.S. president seeking to remain in office by refuting that he lost the election. The parallels with Trump following November 2020 are eerie. (I’m hopeful Levithan is also prescient in having the duly elected candidate in Wide Awake be openly gay. Buttigieg 2024…or maybe 2028!) It’s been a long time since I read Boy Meets Boy (2003), but I remember feeling like the first chapter was unrealistic, the setting being an extremely queer-positive high school (How could that be?) and one of the supporting characters, Infinite Darlene, being both the quarterback of the football team and the homecoming queen. Two Boys Kissing (2013) centers on high publicity earned from the titular act and came out at a time when YouTube and TikTok influencers were finding their way in using social media to be seen.

 

While book banning has been around for ages—and Levithan himself has had his works such as Two Boys Kissing dragged into banning brouhahas—his newest book, the middle grade novel, Answers in the Pages, coincides with the current refresh on book bans, parents emboldened to challenge public school curricula as state legislatures and governors call into question what they consider woke propaganda. 

 

The structure may confuse young readers as three stories are told within this novel: (1) a book icon marks chapters about a fifth grader named Donovan whose mother leads a campaign to ban a book selected by Donovan’s openly gay teacher, Mr. Howe; (2) a turtle icon appears at the beginning of chapters about Gideon White who has a collection of eighty-four turtles, one of them real (Samson), and who feels a special sort of connection to the new boy in his class, Roberto Garcia; and (3) an alligator icon designates chapters from The Adventurers, the book Donovan’s mother is challenging, which reads like a young superhero tale of two boys, Rick and Oliver, plus their sidekick, Melody, who are trying to dodge the evil McAllister who constantly puts the boys’ lives in jeopardy while trying to coerce them to divulge a Doomsday Code.

 

Got all that?

 

The chapters are short which helps the reader orientate more readily to the shifts from tale to tale to tale. There’s a seemingly separate gay storyline running through each tale. Donovan’s mother has concerns about Mr. Howe’s book selection because the last sentence of the book intones that Rick and Oliver are gay:

 

At that moment Rick knew just how

deeply he loved Oliver, and Oliver

knew just how deeply he loved Rick,

and the understanding of this moment

would lead them to much of the 

happiness and adventure that came next.

 

As for turtle-loving Gideon, he comes to feel similarly to Roberto and these feelings are mutual.

 

Basically, Levithan has loaded Answers in the Pages with gay content aimed at elementary school readers. Levithan is basically saying to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the legislature and reactionary conservative parents, “Your move.”

 

So far, I cannot find any mention of this Levithan novel being banned. (In recent years, at least two Florida county school districts have banned Two Boys Kissing while another district has banned Levithan’s Someday.) Maybe Florida hasn’t come up with a book scanner that sets off alarms when “gay” is detected somewhere within. But there must be one in development, with ample state funding aimed at expediting the process.

 

Of the three stories told within Answers in the Pages, the friendship between Gideon and Roberto was the most interesting. It’s still rare to read about gay boys that young beginning to make sense of feelings and their identity. Gideon wonders why he feels differently about Roberto than about his other friends. Why do things matter more? What does this friendship+ mean? SPOILER ALERT: They figure things out, innocently, touchingly, on Valentine’s Day, sharing a box of chocolates. It’s lovely and, yes, age-appropriate. But it will make certain conservative parents upset, spurred on by the knowledge that conservative parent fretting is in vogue at the moment. 

 

The book challenge played out in Donovan’s storyline is realistic. There’s an activist/savior role some parents assume when challenging books. And the kids always know what’s going on. Perhaps all the hot air backfires, piquing children’s interest in the reading material that’s in the spotlight. A student in Donovan’s class gives her own take on how Donovan’s mother’s crusade gets around:

            “She didn’t dare call my mom. But my mom 

found out anyway, because moms talk. And 

your mom is telling everyone the book we’re 

reading is about two boys who fall in love and 

run off with each other in the end. And she says 

the school should not be ‘promoting such ideas.’

I think that’s a direct quote. According to Tarah’s

            mom, who told my mom.”

 

If anything, Levithan is gracious to Donovan’s mother, careful not to villainize her. She and Donovan remain close throughout the story, agreeing to disagree about the suitability of The Adventurers. (I’d have expected Donovan to have been more resentful, more temperamental, blaming his mom for extra, unwanted attention he gets at school.) His mom doesn’t want the book banned outright; she just doesn’t want it taught to fifth graders. (Um, how many tenth grades would want to read about ten-year-old boys fighting off evil?)

 

Levithan provides portions of the fictional book that’s under scrutiny. He skips chapters, not that it matters much. I’ve never been interested in good versus evil battles. They go on and on, like a videogame, one ridiculous predicament following another. I never come to care about the characters or the stakes. Truthfully, I don’t know if Levithan explained the Doomsday Code and I didn’t bother going back to look it up. Given that there are three stories in the book, I wonder if the publisher considered rendering the supposed excerpts fromThe Adventurers as a graphic novel, creating an obvious visual distinction between it and the other two stories, but also adding another element of interest for young readers. Of course, there would have been extra costs involved to hire an illustrator and to print the book, especially if The Adventurers sections were in color, but I think the investment would have made a better book and widened the appeal. I’m grateful that Gideon and Roberto developed feelings for one another because, whatever it is that Rick and Oliver feel in terms of love for one another, is void of emotional impact. It’s the impetus for writing about book banning, that’s all.

 

Answers in the Pages was published in May 2022, only two months after DeSantis signed Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law. Levithan cleverly gives the state a middle finger by giving Oliver from The Adventurers a past as a youngster in Florida, raised under odd, dangerous circumstances. (It involves an alligator.) As Rick and Oliver dodge another one of McAllister’s plots to finish them off, Rick leads an exchange between the two boys:

            “It’s been quite a day, hasn’t it?”

 

            “Yup. But you know what—with every-

            thing that’s happened, one thing’s

            remained absolutely true.”

 

            “What?” Rick asked.

 

            “I still hate Florida.”

 

As always, I’m impressed by Levithan’s clear, entertaining writing style. He has a breezy, yet direct way of writing that is perfect for offering humor as well as more serious fare. Take this little passage about the more traditional book assigned to Gideon’s class:

            Ms. June held up a copy of Harriet the Spy. 

Some kids in the class cheered, because they’d 

already read it. Other kids in the class groaned, 

because they’d already read it.

 

Levithan’s books are always enjoyable. Let as many young readers track down Answers in the Pages while they can. If and when it’s banned in some county in Florida, it will only motivate some young readers to search harder. Books have a way of getting into the right hands. The unfortunate thing is that there are people who don’t know they need to read stories like this because they live in a family, a community and a state where adults are fighting so hard to keep certain realities of the world at bay. Positive portrayals of “certain people” go against the fear mindset they peddle and the gaping black hole they wish their children lived in.